“Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by

American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to

the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.

Seymour

Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker

magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that ‘it’s worse’.

But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: ‘I’m not

done reporting on all this,’ he told a meeting of the American Civil

Liberties Union.

He said: ‘The boys were sodomised with

the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys

shrieking. And this is your government at war.’

He

accused the US administration, and all but accused President George

Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what

he called ‘war crimes’.” (Independent.UK)

“The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday it suspects the United States is secretly holding detainees in prisons around the world, since alleged terrorists mentioned by the FBI have not turned up in known detention centers and Washington has failed to provide a complete list of the people it is holding.

“These people are, as far as we can tell, detained in locations that are undisclosed not only to us but also to the rest of the world,” said ICRC spokeswoman Antonella Notari.

Some individuals whose arrests have been reported in the media and whom the FBI announced it has arrested have not been seen in ICRC prison visits, Notari said. Some media reports have said detainees are being held at the British-controlled Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, where the United States has a military base, but the ICRC has not been notified of prisoners there, she said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday he is looking into the allegation. “We do work closely with the Red Cross on all detainee issues,” he said.” (UN Wire)